Besides catching the awesome art and some sneak-peaks at the
novel, some of my hosts have written their own messages about the novel, about
some of the topics in the novel, and (thank you, Laura), about their experience
editing the novel.Take a little time to
look around these blogs; you may enjoy what else they offer!

Monday, March 25, 2013

This week, Spencer Hill Press unveils the cover for The
Kelpie! You can help us by posting the information for the Scavenger Hunt,
as well as the book’s cover, on your blog! Post any time between March 25th and April
1st! When your post is up, feel free to tweet it to
@kendrybird or @spencerhillp

I can't honestly say I was joking when I suggested to
my best friend, Joe – Prince Joseph, eldest son of England's Crown Prince –
that we could probably find something the police had missed in regards to the
missing children. After all, eleven and twelve year olds like us did that
all the time on the telly and in the books we read…

When Heather and Joe decide to be Sleuthy MacSleuths on the property abutting
the castle Heather's family lives in, neither expect to discover the real
reason children were going missing:

A Kelpie. A child-eating faerie horse had moved into the loch "next
door."

The two barely escape with their lives, but they aren't safe. Caught in a storm
of faerie power, Heather, Joe, and Heather's whole family are pulled into a
maze of talking cats, ghostly secrets, and powerful magick.

With another child taken, time is running out to make things right.

To go along with sharing the simply gorgeous cover, author
T.J. Wooldridge has enlisted several of her friends who have helped her in the
journey of writing this novel to put together a special treat for you!

Each day of the week, search for individual components of
the cover--with a bonus piece of art on Wednesday--at these blogs.
Collect the right words per the instructions, and unscramble the line of poetry
to be entered to win one of three prizes!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Annie's Book Stop in Worcester MA, owned by Broad Universe member Patty Cryan, held a Celebration of Teachers in March 2013. On Saturday, March 16, Patty's store welcomed members of the New England Chapter of Broad Universe, who discussed celebrating women genre authors in the classroom. The panelists were Trisha Wooldridge, president of Broad Universe, Rachel Kenley, and Inanna Arthen. Thanks to Morven Westfield for recording the event for Broadly Speaking.

Finn (not bleedin'
Finnegan) MacCullen is eager to begin his apprenticeship. He soon discovers
the ups and downs of hunting monsters in a suburban neighborhood under the
demanding tutelage of the Knight, Gideon Lir. Both master and apprentice are
descendents of the Tuatha De Danaan, a magical race of warriors from Ireland.
Scattered long ago to the four corners of the world, the De Danaan wage a two
thousand year old clandestine battle with their ancient enemy, the Amandán, a
breed of goblin-like creatures.

Now with the beasts concentrating their attacks on Finn, he and his master must
race to locate the lost Spear of the Tuatha De Danaan, the only weapon that can
destroy the Amandán, all the while hiding his true identity from his new
friends, Rafe and Savannah, twins whose South African roots may hold a key to
Finn’s survival.

Armed with a bronze dagger, some ancient Celtic magic, and a hair-trigger
temper, Finn is about to show his enemies the true meaning of "fighting
Irish."

xx

Vikki and I were going through the slush pile when we both
fell in love with this manuscript.Irish
mythology! Adventure! In the suburbs!

Only… it was skewed a bit young for what, at that time, we
were familiar with as the type of book SHP went for.

At first, unbeknownst to each other, we each still
individually jumped on Kate to expand the SHP vision to include mid-grade.

Kate, in her usual awesome-Kate-ness, said something to the
effect of, "Sure, I think we can do that!" and then informed us we
each had asked for it, and wouldn't it be nice for us to co-edit the
manuscript.

Lots of fun ensued.

Including Vikki snickering at me searching through tissues
for this one particular scene I was editing at her kitchen table.Because snark and teasing so don't fit with the things we adore
about Darby's characters. Noo… not at all!Finn is such an angel… no,
wait, that's Darby's other books (also awesome.)

So, with the ups being the immediate emotional ties we had
to the characters, our love of the humor and dialogue, our appreciation of the
story… what was there left for us to edit, you ask?

Well, there was a big chunk of "No, you need to write even more about this, this… and
definitely more Gideon!" (Seriously,
wait till you meet the knight!)

Since this is also written in third person, mostly through
Finn and Gideon's eyes, we also played around with the point of view, which is
a lot of fun to play with because it can both offer some excellent insight to
the characters, but get confusing if it gets away from you… as writing often
does in its journey.

Also, for my part, my roommate-at-the-time and I
experimented with my collection of daggers, dirks, and knives to ensure the
plausibility of using one's jeans to hold a blade (notsomuch, boy/girl-butt
shape regardless). Vikki picked up on the specifics of knife sharpening
(whetstone needs oil) and set me to work helping her sharpen some kitchen
knives for missing something I should've caught. ;).Of course, in my geek world, any excuse to
(safely) play with blades and talk about them makes me a happy camper.

As I said, much fun ensued.

Furthermore, because having so much fun editing wasn't
enough, I managed to hook Darby up with one of my favorite Celtic bands, Emerald Rose, who let us license their
music for the wicked cool
trailer!Darby loved them so much,
she also asked about licensing to quote their lyrics to "Fire in the
Head" in the novel. Way cool!

While I have not had the chance to hug Darby in person for
this release, I'm happy to direct you to her page where, if you're out west-ish,
you might get to do that for me.She's
got an excellent
tour planned with her boys (Finn and Gideon… and possibly Griffin
and Basil might make a showing), that, if at all possible, you must check
out.

At the very least, you have
to get yourself your own copy of Finn
Finnegan to love and hug.

And be tortured by as you wait for its sequel, Gideon's Spear, coming out next year.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

One of the benefits of being a member of Broad Universe is participation in our Rapid Fire Readings, group readings that take place at conventions and offer samples of our members' work. Here's an example, recorded at Arisia in Boston in 2013. You'll hear readings from three of the eight Broads that participated:

GAIL Z. MARTIN, the author of ICE FORGED in her new The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), plus The Chronicles of The Necromancer series (THE SUMMONER, THE BLOOD KING, DARK HAVEN & DARK LADY’S CHOSEN ) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (THE SWORN AND THE DREAD).

ROXANNE BLAND, a genre-bending author of fantasy, science fiction and romance. Her first book, THE UNDERGROUND, has just been released. Her motto: Reality is highly overrated. Find out more on her blog, Of Werewolves And Other Strangers.

KIMBERLY LONG-EWING'S work focuses on fantasy themes. and finding the unusual in ordinary objects. Her short stories have appeared in Crossed Genres, New Myths, and anthologies such as No Man's Land ( Dark Quest Books), UnCONventional (Spencer Hill Press) and the up-coming Holiday Magick (Spencer Hill Press).

Hosting the program is SUZANNE REYNOLDS-ALPERT who lives in Massachusetts with her tolerant husband and two awesome kids. She writes speculative fiction, dark fantasy, and poetry in between driving her kids around and meeting the incessant demands of her feline overlords.

Monday, March 4, 2013

My short story, "Finding Fire," is part of this anthology. :) I had a
wicked amount of fun writing this one, and I was so pleased that Rich
and Jess liked it! Sexy men, fire, Spring Break, Valencia, Spain's celebration of
Las Fallas... and magick - all things I love. Watch for it coming out May of this year!

Also, look at the cool artwork just for my story!

Holiday Magick: 20 Holiday Stories with a twist

People
don't usually question holiday traditions or their origins, but maybe
they should. Over centuries, explanations of how and why holidays exist
may have been lost or changed. Some holiday histories might only be
known by a few individuals. Ancient magic spells could have influenced
how we celebrate today. Fairies, zombies, or demons may have shaped our
holidays. Consider the following... Why do people give red roses and cards on Valentine's Day? Is there more to the story of Purim than is traditionally told? Why do people wear green on St. Patrick's Day? What happens to spirits that are captured during the Japanese Doll Festival? Where does Santa get his helpers? You may think you know the truth, but you can't be too sure.